Sunday, December 23, 2012

A new idea of mindset change

"...the possibility of an Indian education system that could one day be decolonised....need to examine how to decolonise politics and governance especially in Delhi that to this day remains the last outpost of the British imperial system of governance.India remains colonial not just in the way it is governed but in its mindset. So in the engagement with modern ideas and modern technology what younger Indians are losing very quickly is their sense of being Indian. One of the things that depresses me most on my travels in our fair and wondrous land is the number of young Indians who speak no Indian language well and speak English so badly that it is sometimes hard to make out whether they are speaking English at all. This has not happened in countries that are proud of their identity. China’s communist rulers may have obliterated their traditional architecture and crafts but the Chinese continue to speak, read and write Chinese. In India, books in Indian languages sell in such small numbers that the publishing industry survives on books written in English. Do we need more proof of India still being colonised in its essence?Only a new dream will restore in India a sense of who she once was and what she would like to be again one day. As things stand all we do is pay lip service to our ‘ancient civilisation’ while watching it slowly disappear under the onslaught of modern ideas and modern technology. It is hard to think of a time when we needed a new dream more than we do now. It has to be a dream that is bigger than just a new economic vision but the glorification of prosperity instead of poverty is not a bad foundation for a new dream."Read the full article here.